Planning a month
Monthly break-even worksheet
A break-even worksheet answers the month's first question: how many orders must come in before fixed costs are covered and profit begins. It takes three inputs you already have, fixed costs, average order value and contribution per order, and turns them into an order count and a revenue figure.
The file
nouz-break-even.csv · 7 columns · one example row
The arithmetic is short. Contribution per order is what an average order leaves after its own variable costs: goods, shipping, packaging, payment fees, advertising. Divide the month's fixed costs by that contribution and you have the orders that clear them; multiply by average order value and you have the revenue the month must take.
The worksheet's honesty depends on which margin you feed it. Use CM3 per order, the contribution after marketing, never a gross margin: an order that has not yet paid for its own advertising has not really contributed. The example row is the demo store's August: €34.173,05 of fixed costs against €19,21 of contribution per order means 1.779 orders before the first profitable one.
The interactive ecommerce break-even calculator runs this arithmetic live with your own numbers, and the break-even point entry in the glossary explains the trap in choosing the wrong margin for it.
How to use it
- 01Enter the month, and everything you pay regardless of sales as fixed_costs.
- 02Take average_order_value from a recent month: net revenue divided by orders.
- 03Work out contribution_per_order after every variable cost, advertising included.
- 04Read break_even_orders, and check it against the orders the month realistically takes.
- 05Repeat on the first of each month; the number moves whenever costs or basket size do.
What is inside
| Row | month | fixed_costs | average_order_value | contribution_margin_pct | contribution_per_order | break_even_orders | break_even_revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2026-08 | 34173.05 | 90.60 | 0.212 | 19.21 | 1779 | 161177.40 |
| 2 | |||||||
| 3 |
Every column, explained
| month | The month being planned, as year and month. |
|---|---|
| fixed_costs | Everything the month pays regardless of sales. |
| average_order_value | Net revenue divided by orders, from a recent month. |
| contribution_margin_pct | contribution_per_order divided by average_order_value, as a decimal. |
| contribution_per_order | What an average order leaves after goods, logistics, fees and marketing. |
| break_even_orders | fixed_costs divided by contribution_per_order, rounded up. |
| break_even_revenue | break_even_orders times average_order_value. |